1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus or equipment for the fitting of grommets to cables, electrical cables in particular. The apparatus includes at least one drum which is open at one end face, the interior of the drum containing grommets, and which is drivable about an axis inclined to the horizontal, having scoops or similar grommet-holding elements arranged in the interior of the drum and a feed device projecting into the drum, whereby, while the drum is rotating, the grommets are transferred by means of the scoops to the feed device for the purpose of further processing in accordance with the invention.
2. Description of Background and Material Information
By means of apparatus of the type to which the present invention is directed, grommets, which are typically made of rubber or other elastomeric material, are required, for example, for the feeding of electrical cables through housing walls of electrical appliances, can be conveyed and worked upon in an orderly manner.
In an apparatus which is known from printed publication No. 7.132.1, of July 1991, by the firm of KOMAX AG, of Dierikon, Switzerland, the feeding of grommets, bushes, or bushings, takes place through conveying pots or drums with spirally shaped tracks, for which the grommets must often be chalked, which can lead to contamination and for which different conveying drums are required for each type of grommet. For the purpose of fitting a grommet onto the end of a cable, the grommet is firmly retained in a gripper and the cable is pushed into the grommet bore. Generally, good results are achieved thereby, although it can lead to a large variations in the grommet position on the cable in the case of different properties of the cable, such as insulation diameter and surface properties, for example. Furthermore, only the grommets themselves allowed to be processed, which by reason of their shape and dimensions are retained and supported unobjectionably by the gripper.
Another kind of fitting is described in German Utility Model No. G 89 09 515.4. In this case, a plunger pin is pushed into the bore of a sealing plug retained in a pivotal finger. Thereafter, a plunger sleeve, which is arranged for sliding on the plunger pin, pushes the sealing plug from the plunger pin onto an electrical cable. In this method, certain demands are made on the shape and dimensions of the sealing plugs, since a sufficiently large bearing surface must be available.
An apparatus by means of which identically shaped parts can be brought into a certain position required for further processing has become known by U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,891. In this case, a supply drum is provided in which the identically shaped parts are disposed and which can be driven about an axis inclined to the horizontal. A rail, which is likewise inclined to the horizontal, is arranged in the supply drum and is constructed in such a manner that, upon rotation of the supply drum, a number of parts are collected by the rail and remain suspended in the desired position. By reason of gravitational force, the parts slide off of the rail and, bridging an air gap, are caught by a conveying tube always with the same end forward.